Best "ultraportable" system by far
Written: Jun 29 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Small, light, powerful, and reasonably priced
Cons: CD-ROM or DVD-ROM requires the Ultrabase
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| gregggreg's Full Review: Lenovo ThinkPad 570 (5703BUK) PC Notebook |
I was interested in an "ultraportable" system and looked at the IBM Thinkpad 570, the Toshiba Portege, and the Sony Vaio 505.
The Sony was a lot cheaper, but at the time was only available with Penitum processors. It also has a small-tan-normal keyboard and the only screen available was 10" (They now have some 12" models). When I first saw the Sony my inner geek thought, "Wow, that is really small, functional, and just looks cool." But after borrowing a friend's I realized that it really is more of a toy than a full working computer that is capable of everything I need from a laptop.
The Portege was somewhat thinner and lighter and looked cooler than the Thinkpad, but cost hundreds more. I felt that the price didn't justify those perks. Also, the company I worked for got Thinkpads and Porteges for the employees and I asked the IT guys and they said people were having more people returning their Porteges than their Thinkpads.
So I decided on the thinkpad and have been very happy so far. The only thing I don't like about it is the fact that in order to use the CD-ROM, I have to use the ultrabase and turn my little laptop into a hulking monster. I think it would be better if you could have a little CD-ROM that you could plug into the back like the floppy drive. Maybe such a thing exists, but I never found it. I guess if I wanted to I could buy some 3rd party solution that plugs into the PCMCIA port or something, but I already opted for the CD-ROM for the ultrabase.
I run Linux on my Thinkpad 570 and didn't have any problems loading it onto the system. Then again, I know Linux pretty well. A rookie might have some issues.... But for a time I was commuting cross country and every flight I used my Thinkpad from take-off to landing (using 2 batteries) and I had the entire website the company was working on running independently on my little 570. This includes the Apache webserver compiled with PHP, a multi-threaded caching server, Oracle for Linux, and X with Netscape running as a client. This was indispensable for me as I got 6 hours of coding each way every trip that I wouldn't have had otherwise.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
gregggreg
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Member: Greg Gardner
Location: San Francisco, CA
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 6 members
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